Brendan looked over at Olivia. “You’re not Ivy?” he asked.
Olivia shook her head.
“Whoa,” he said, and for a moment Olivia thought he might faint.
Ivy grabbed his hand to steady him, and Brendan’s eyes flickered. “That hand feels like you.”
Ivy smiled. “That’s because it is me,” she said quietly.
“You two . . . are t-twins?” Brendan stammered.
Ivy nodded. “We only just found each other at the beginning of the school year,” she explained. “I never even knew I had a twin sister before.”
At least we don’t have to keep it a secret anymore, Olivia thought.
“I have to sit down,” Brendan said drily. He pulled his hand from Ivy’s and staggered to the corner of the bed.
Ivy followed, talking faster now. “Not even the two of us noticed how much alike we look at first. But, apart from the fact that Olivia’s a cheerleader, we’re practically identical.”
Brendan shook his head. “I don’t understand,” he said. “How come she doesn’t look like a cheerleader right now?”
“Because,” Ivy said, wincing, “we switched places.”
Brendan blinked slowly.
“Bren?” Ivy quavered. A single tear tracked down her face, and Olivia felt her own eyes well up. “Are you okay?”
Brendan didn’t answer.
Please, please don’t break up with her, thought Olivia, biting her lip.
Brendan’s voice erupted hoarsely at last. “I— I just can’t believe it.... Long-lost twin sisters? It’s like something from a book.”
Ivy took a deep breath. “I’d understand if you never wanted to see me again, Brendan.” Her lip trembled violently. “I should have told you. I wanted to—”
Brendan suddenly stood and put his hand on Ivy’s face, gently wiping away a tear with his thumb. Ivy’s spray-on tan rubbed off to reveal a pale stripe of skin. Brendan smiled and hugged her. “I’m a little confused, but I’m not mad,” he whispered, as Ivy wrapped her arms tightly around him.
Olivia wiped her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh of relief.
“There’s something else.” Ivy sniffled, pulling back from Brendan after a moment.
“You mean you’ve got a secret bigger than your twin sister?” Brendan teased. Olivia chuckled nervously.
“Olivia and I aren’t completely identical,” Ivy began. “She’s not a vampire.”
Brendan did a double take. “Ivy!” he whispered disapprovingly, shooting a quick, sidelong glance at Olivia.
“I had to tell her, Brendan,” Ivy said.
Olivia stepped forward. “I promised Ivy that I would never, ever tell anyone, and I won’t, Brendan. I’ll do anything to keep the vampire secret safe.” Brendan looked at her doubtfully. “That’s why I’m dressed up like Ivy right now— to keep Toby Decker off her trail.”
“What does Toby Decker have to do with anything?” Brendan asked.
“Serena Star has got him spying on me in the hope of finding out something sensational,” Ivy explained.
“Oh,” Brendan said. “I guess that makes sense, then.” He chuckled. “It’s completely insane, but it does make sense.”
He and Ivy hugged again.
Olivia realized that her feet were killing her from marching around in Ivy’s heavy black boots all afternoon. “Hey, now that the big secret’s out,” she interrupted, “can we switch back?”
Ivy looked down at the pink sparkly top. “Definitely.”
“Aw,” whined Brendan, “but I really like you in pink.”
“Really?” Olivia and Ivy both said in surprise.
“No,” Brendan answered mischievously. Then he winked at Olivia. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Olivia laughed as she and Ivy headed for the black-lacquered screen in the corner of the room to swap clothes.
Brendan started to laugh, too. “No wonder you couldn’t find my book!”
Ivy pulled her top on over her head and came out from behind the screen in the corner of the room, leaving Olivia to finish changing.
Brendan’s eyes lit up when he saw her. “There you are,” he said, and Ivy’s heart fluttered. With a grin, she walked straight to her desk and pulled Brendan’s English book from the middle of the heap. She walked over to him and held it out. “Thanks, Brendan,” she said, and she wasn’t just talking about the book he’d lent her.
Brendan brushed her hand as he took the book. “You’re welcome.” Then he added, “No more secrets, though. Okay?”
“Okay,” Ivy said, pushing aside a shoe and some bags and sitting down beside him.
“You know,” Brendan remarked, “you both do this thing where you scrunch your nose up when you’re nervous.”
“My nose does not scrunch!” protested Ivy.
“Yes, it does.” Brendan smiled gently. He leaned back on his elbows. “One vampire sister and the other human,” he said, his black T-shirt stretching across his chest. “That doesn’t happen every day, huh?”
“No kidding,” said Ivy. “That’s why Olivia and I switched this afternoon. I went to the vampire adoption agency to see what I could find out about our parents.”
Olivia’s head popped out from behind the screen, half her face still covered with spray-on whitener. “What did you find out?” she asked.
“Nothing. They didn’t even have a record of my adoption. Apparently, no one named Charles Vega has adopted a child in the last four hundred years! I think they must have lost my file.”
Olivia’s face fell.
“I’m sorry, Olivia,” Ivy told her.
Olivia sighed. “I’ve been spending so much time thinking about my mother and Great-aunt Edna and their history, you know, for this film project,” she quavered. “I thought we might be able to get at least a clue into our own family.”
Ivy nodded sympathetically.
Olivia was silent for a moment, and Ivy couldn’t tell if there was a tear falling down her sister’s whitened cheek. “I’ll be done in a sec,” Olivia whispered at last, disappearing behind the screen again.
Brendan stood up abruptly. “We should have a party!” he announced.